Drier and process of drying



Sept. 22, 1925. 1,554,780

J; J. BERRIGAN ET Al.

,blusa AND PnocEss oF DRYING filed May 7. 1924 I 5 .CUC

Patented sept. z2, 1925.

UNITED. STATES 1,554,7802 `rnxraivr oi-luciaI `"J'OHN 3'. BERBIGAN AND JOHN IB. BERRIGAN, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGN'OBS 0F ONE-THIRD T0 KATHERYNE P.

M ALON, 0F CHICAGO', ILLINOIS.`

DRIER AND PROCESS OF DRYING.

Application led May 7,

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that JOHN J. BERRIGAN and 'JOHN B. BERRIGAN, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Driers and Processes of Drying, of which the following is a s ecification.

This invention relates to a drier and particularly to a drier adapted to dry solld material removed from sewage, such for example as activated sludge, although it may be applied to dry other material. Driers adapted to operate on this class of material have heretofore been large and cumbersome and have been on the order of ovens in which a sufficiently high degree of heat for drying required many hours of heating before drying could be commenced. It 1s, therefore,`

one object of our invention to `provide a drier-which can be put into operation practically instantaneously without the necessity of any preheating period before drying commences. Another object of our invention is to provide a drier by means of which material to be dried will be finely reduced so as to avoid the necessity of crushing or otherwise breaking up the dried partlcles. Another object of our invention is to provide a drier in which the material may be dried complete by passing once through the drier. A further object of our invention is to provide means for finely dividing the material and then drying it in this finely divided condition. Other objects will appear from time to time throughout the specification and claims. v

Our invention is illustrated more or less diagrammatically accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a vertical cross section of one form of our drier.

Like parts are designated by like characters throughout.

A is a hydraulic cylinder of any suitable form. Its details are not here illustrated as they form no part of the present invention. A1 A1 are intake and exit pipes leading to the interior of the cylinder and by means of which Huid or pressure may be introduced and withdrawn.

B is a receiving compartment into which material to be dried is introduced. B1 is a piston located within the cylinder B and carried on a shaft B2 which extends through in the 1924. Serial No. 711,547.

into the hydraulic cylinder A. As pressure 1s applied to the cylinder, the shaft B2 is forced down, the piston B1-moves with it, and the material within the cylinder'B is forced down and out through. the perforated plate B3 which forms the bottom of the cylinder. This plate is provided with a large number of small perforations B4 which are preferably of very small size. For some purposes it is desirable to have them no larger than one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter, although this size may vary considerably with different classes of material to be acted upon. Bl5 is a chute by means of which material to be dried is introduced into the cylinder B. '4

C is a drying chamber provided preferably throughout all or a part of its exterior with passages C1 C1. These passages are provided at the top with the discharge connections C2 C2 and at the bottom w1th the intake connections C3 Cs through which a current of air may be forced by blowers C4. Leading into the passages C1 from the interior of the drying chamber are escape'passages C5 preferably formed as upturned pipes. As the material is dried within the drier a certain amount of steam and other vapor is forced off and this passes out through the discharge connections C. The drying chamber C terminates preferably 1n a funnel-shaped bottom C6 in which the dr'y material is collected and passes out through a discharge opening C7 to any suitable receiving means, such for example as a conveyor.

Within the drying chamber are mounted a plurality of movable inclined baille plates D. These plates are pivotally mounted' at D1 on the inner wall of the drying chamber, and beneath each of them is mountedy one or more cams D2. Thesecams as here shown are mounted on shafts D3 which may extend through the drier and are mounted for rotation. As the shafts are rotated, the cams act upon the baffle plates to move them up and down and the shape of the cam may be such to make this movement more or less violent.

E, E are supply pipes forconnection with the fuel burners E1 E1. E2 are valves for controlling the burners. One of such burners is located immediately below the perforated plate and is of such size and arrangement that as material falls through the perforated plate it passes through a zone of ame and substantially'vall of the material comes in direct contact with the iame and is immediately (dried on its exterior. The other burners are arranged so that each of them heats geu-4 erally onev of the bafle plates. `They mayor ma not play directly upon it. Preferably t e jects from each of such burners extend beyond the lower end of the plate immediately above it as shown. Thus the materialasit falls from plate to-plate preferably passes again throgh a zone of-fiame. While we prefer to have the material pass thus repeatedly through zones of flames,\it is of course not an essential feature, anda suiciently high degree of heat may be obtained in the drier so that the o` ration will be satisfactory even through t e material does not pass through the zone of fiame, but we have found that it is generall more satisfactory to have it pass throng such zones.

Although we have shown an operative device, still it w'ill be obvious that many changes might be made in size, shape and arran ment of parts withoutdeparting material y from the spirit of our invention,

and we wish, therefore, that our showingits subsequent drying may be carried out It might be run in any suitable manner. through any sort of drier, for example, "a rotary type of drier now in common use. If the material is used in a drier such as the one shown, the number and inclination of the baille plates might be'vari'ed, the

amount of movement given the baille plates might be varied, the distance from plate to plate, that is to say,`the size of the intervenin fiame swept Azone might also be varie The use and operation of our invention are as follows:

The material is introduced into the pressure cylinder and as so introduced is, in the case of activated sludge, a thick moist gluey mass which readily adheres to any surface with. which 'it comes in contact, even if a hot surface' and it -is-extremely diicult to handle in this condition.' When the pressure is applied, the material is forced in fine string-like streams through the perforated plate in the bottom of the cylinder and as 1t emerges from. this plate it is swept by the flames and is practically instantaneously dried on its outside. Thus when it comes v in contact with `the first of the bafiie plates it does not adhere to the surfacebut moves down along its surface being further and more thoroughly dried as it moves. It passes very small particles.

We prefer to use perforations about cne templation of our invention.'

movement and may preferably pass through' a zone of flames,-and moves down a second heated plate. This process is repeated until,v v the material has passed' to the bottom of theA drier, and by that time it is comparatively dried through and has been broken up into sixteenth inch in diameter and the particles when passed throu h such a plate and `through the drier wil be a little more vthan 'one-sixteenth inch in diameter and will vary in length usually from about one-quarter inch to vsomething less than oneinch.

We have described -the operation of our device in connection with its use on .acti vated sludge, but is is not at all limited to such use, and 'it-clearly ma be applied to `any use where. wet material is vto'be dried and any such use is within the con- We claim:

1. The process of drying Amaterialjwhich includes causing it to fall freely through a highly heated zone,t and` subsequently causing it to move lessfrapidly across a heated 'surface of lower temperature.

2. The-process of drying material which 'consists in causing it to fall freely through a highly heated zone and subsequently causing it to move less rapidly. across a plurality of heated surfaces of lower temperature one below the other with an intervening Iheated zoney separating `each of said surfaces.

3. The process of dr ing material which includes causing it to fiillfreely through a fiame swept zone and subsequently moving it-acro'ss a plurality of heated surfaces withv intervening fiame swept zones separating each of said surfaces.

4. The process of drying material which A consists in forming it into a stream of coniparatively small cross section, causing it to fall freely through a heated'zone and subsequently moving it less rapidly over a heated surface.y

5. The process of d ing lastic, not easily inflammable materlal which includes forming it intoa stream ofc'omparatively small cross section and causing said stream to fall freely through a'fiame swept zone. 6. The. process of dryingmaterial which consists in forming it into a stream of comparatively small cross section, causing said stream to fall freely. through a flame swept zone and subsequently causing the material to move over a heated surface.

7. The process of drying material which includes forming it into a plurality of streams of comparatively small cross sc tion, dischargingsaid streams into a flame swept zone.

8. The process of drying viscous materlal which consists in forming 1t into a plurality of'strean'ls of comparatively small cross section, causing said streams to fall freely through a flame swept zone, and subsequently causing them to move less rapidly across a heated surface.

9. The process of drying material which consists in forming it into a plurality of streams of comparatively small cross sectional area, causing said streams to fall freely through a fire swept zone thereby effecting a surface drying of the material, and causing the material subsequently to move across a plurality of heated surfaces, and alternately through a plurality of fire swept zones.

10. In combination with a drier, means for introducing material to be dried to said drier, means for causing said material to fall freely through the drier, means for heating the material as it falls, a baille plate within the drier adapted to receive the material after its first heating and to discharge the material from it, said baille plate being heated.

11. In combination with a drier, means for introducing material to be dried to said drier, means for causing said material to fall freely through the drier, means for heating the material as it falls, a succession of baille plates adapted successively to receive the material after its first heating and to discharge the `material from them, said plates being heated.

12. In combination with ya drier, means for introducing material to be dried to said drier, means for causing said material to fall freely through the drier, means for heating the material as it falls, a succession of baille plates adapted successively to re- -ceive the material after its first heating and to discharge the material from them, said plates being heated, and means for moving said plates to assist movement of the material across them.

13. In combination with a drier, means for introducing material to '-.be dried to said drier, means for causing said material to fall freely through the drier, means for heating the material as it falls, a succession of baille plates adapted successively to receive the material after its first heatingand to discharge the material from them, said plates being heated, and a plurality of fire swept zones between said baille plates through which the material is caused to fall.

14. In combination with a drier, means for introducing material to be dried to vsaid drier, means for causing said material to fall freely through the drier, means for heating the material as it falls, a succession of baille plates adapted successively to receive the material after its first heating and to discharge the material from them, said plates being heated, and means for moving said plates to assist movement of ly through the drier, heating means vactive upon them as they fall.

16. In combination with a drier, means for forming a plastic mass of material to be dried into particles of small cross section, means for causing said particles to fall free# ly through the drier,`heating means active upon them as they fall, a baille plate adapted to intercept said material, said plate being heated.

17. In combination with a drier, means for forming a plastic mass of material to be dried into particles of small cross section, means for causing said particles to fall freely through the drier, heating means active upon them as they fall, and a succession of baille plates adapted to intercept said material, said baffle plates being heated.

18. In combination with a drier, means for forming a plastic mass of material to be dried into particles of small cross section, means for causing said particles to fall freely through the drier, heating means active upon them as they fall, and a succession of baille plates adapted to intercept said material, said baffle plates being heated and separated each from the other by a flame swept zone through which the material passes.

19. In combination in a drier means for reducing the material to be dried to particles of small size, means for. drying the exterior of said particles withgreat rapidity, and means for subsequently less rapidly completing the drying operation,

20. In combination in a drier a pressing chamber having a perforated bottom, means for forcing material from the chamber through said bottom, means for heating the outside of the particles emerging from said bottom, and means for subsequently furtherheating and drying said particles, vsaid means including burners adapted to project flames'upon said material and shaking inclined baille plates across which said material moves.

21. The process of dry-ing material which consists in causing it to fall freely through a Haine swept zone to effect surface drying'and subsequently subjecting it to the influence of a plurality of heated zones separated by alternate additional flame swept ZOl'leS.

plate,` thereafter immediately passing it through flames. y

24. The process of drying a mass of plastic, not easily inflammable sticky material which consists in first reducing the material to particles ,of comparatively small size,

subjecting these particles to an intense heat to effect surface drying to destroy the-stickiness of the material, and subsequently further dr ing the material.

25. lle-process of drying a mass of plastic, not easily inflammable sticky material which consists in first reducing the material l to particles of comparatively small size,

passing the vparticles through flames to effect 15 surface drying to destroythe stickinessof the material, and subsequently further drying the material.

26. T'he .process of kdrying plastic, not easily infiammable materialy which includes 20 forming `it into a. stream of comparatively small cross section and causing said stream "to fall freely through a highly heatedrzone.

Signedy at Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois, this-5th day of May, 1924.`

- JOHN J. BERRIGAN. JOHN B.BERR1GAN. 

